Washington — Federal prosecutors in California unsealed an indictment Monday charging two people with leading an online white supremacist group, maintaining a list of high-profile assassination targets and encouraging group members to commit hate crimes.
A 37-page indictment filed in the Eastern District of California on September 5 alleges that Dallas Erin Humber and Matthew Robert Allison led a group called “Terrorgram,” a network of channels, group chats, and users on the app Telegram that promoted “white supremacy accelerationism.” The ideology, court documents state, is “centered around the belief in the superiority of the white race,” and calls for violence and terrorism to fuel a race war aimed at accelerating the collapse of the government and the rise of a “white ethno-state.”
Humber, 34, and Allison, 37, face 15 federal charges, including three counts of abetting the murder of a federal officer, four counts of abetting a hate crime, and one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist. Humber is from Elk Grove, California, and Allison is from Boise, Idaho. Both were arrested Friday, and officials said Allison is expected to make his initial court appearance Tuesday.
Assistant Attorney General Christine Clark said the indictment exposed “a new technical dimension to white supremacist violence.”
“Terrorgram”
Prosecutors allege that Humber and Allison took over the group in 2022 after one of its leaders was arrested and charged with terrorism. As the new leaders of the so-called Terrorgram Collective, the indictment alleges that the defendants distributed videos and publications called “Hard Reset,” “White Terror,” and “The List,” and encouraged group members to carry out attacks against “racial enemies” and critical infrastructure.
The indictment describes the “list” as a hit list of “high-value” targets for assassination, including names, addresses, and photographers. According to the indictment, the targets included U.S. senators, federal district judges, former U.S. attorneys, state and local officials, and leaders of private businesses and nongovernmental organizations.
According to court documents, Allison encouraged Terrorgram members to “act now” and “do your part” and to kill their targets. The attacks, according to the indictment, targeted people the group viewed as “perpetuating an irredeemable society” whose murder would create chaos and hasten the collapse of the government.
Prosecutors say that in addition to the hit list, Allison and Humber provided instructions on how to build and detonate bombs, and shared a five-step instructional video that partially explained how to locate “federal buildings” that would be “suitable targets” and how to avoid being caught by law enforcement.
Federal investigators allege that the duo pressured users to “carry out planned attacks” and urged followers to “immortalize themselves in the pantheon.” According to charging documents, some members of Humber and Allison’s online group were inspired to carry out attacks worldwide.
The pair frequently used racial slurs and other derogatory language when describing the victims of their attacks.
Prosecutors say several attacks or planned attacks in recent years could be linked to the defendants’ group, including an October 2022 shooting at an LGBTQ bar in Slovakia that left two people dead and a stabbing of five people outside a mosque in Turkey. Prosecutors say U.S. investigators also foiled a plot in July in New Jersey in which an 18-year-old planned to attack an energy facility.
The pair produced and shared a 24-minute documentary called “White Terror,” which commemorates 105 white supremacist attacks between 1968 and 2021, according to court documents. Humber narrated the documentary, which ended with a message to the “saints of tomorrow,” reassuring them that the attacks they committed would be commended, prosecutors said.
The Justice Department said they were in the process of creating an “adult encyclopedia” that praised white supremacist attackers and urged Terrorgram users to attack them. Humber also shared graphics for “Adult Standards” and “The Road to Adulthood,” according to the indictment, and shared at least one message that the group said was designed to radicalize Terrorgram users.
In announcing the charges on Monday, Justice Department officials alleged that Allison and Humber not only “inspired” the planning but also instigated the attacks and, in some cases, provided potential attackers with actionable plans and encouraged members to carry them out.
“These are not just words,” Matt Olson, the Justice Department’s national security director, said Monday.
The indictment is against Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. Arrested in France Last month, French prosecutors alleged the platform was being used for criminal purposes, including distributing child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking.
Durov recently denied claims that the site was “some kind of anarchic haven” in a statement posted to his Telegram channel, calling it “completely false” but adding that “it is my personal goal to significantly improve the situation.”
“We remove millions of harmful posts and channels every day. We publish daily transparency reports and have a direct hotline with NGOs to process emergency mediation requests faster,” Durove wrote. “But we hear voices saying it’s not enough.”
